


To Nourish Growth

by Rhiw



Series: A Different Path [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alpha Sarutobi Asuma, Alpha/Beta, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Beta/Beta, F/F, F/M, M/M, Omega Yamato | Tenzo, Omega/Omega
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:13:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21856633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhiw/pseuds/Rhiw
Summary: Tenzō has had many names in his life, very few people have been with him through all of them.
Relationships: Sarutobi Asuma/Yamato | Tenzou, background Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka
Series: A Different Path [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1574530
Comments: 33
Kudos: 305





	1. Boy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I've been sitting on this one for a while and decided to publish it. I'm also thinking, as per request, to do another series of snapshots of Kakashi through the original story, Waterfall's Last, before starting the one with the kids. What do we think? Yay or nay?
> 
> This story may also be hard to understand at some points if you don't read the first in the series, but I'll do my best to make this handle well as a stand alone.

The first time the boy who would one day be Tenzō saw Sarutobi Asuma, he did not yet have a name. No, he had one but ‘Subject 19a’ was a bit of a mouthful and no one called him by that and the boy had never liked it, so he no longer used it. He was sitting mutely outside of the Hokage’s office, feet drawn up on the plastic chair seat, legs tucked close to his chest, staring blankly at the tile floor. He had to come here every day to speak with the Hokage, so he could ‘evaluate his growth,’ whatever that meant. But he was no longer in the tube, or in the dark, so the boy did not voice any objections. He was far too afraid to do so anyway. While no one had treated him like the workers in the lab did, the boy was not willing to risk it.

So, he sat and waited quietly and tried to pretend he was anywhere but where he was. He was thinking so hard trying to picture himself somewhere else (which was a bit of a struggle, as he hadn’t really been in many places that wasn’t his tube, or his cell, or the small white hospital room the new people had given him) that it took him a long moment to realize that someone was standing in front of him. He glanced up to find a much older boy, hands on his hips, eyes narrowed. He seemed different in every way; he was taller and broader, his skin darker than the boy’s, obviously he was older. His hair was darker too and his eyes were like two polished bits of coal.

“Um.” The boy said after a moment, highly aware of how his masked watchers were observing their interaction.

“So.” The…large…boy said, voice tight. “You’re the reason dad never has time to come to lunch any more, eh? What? Can’t stop playing pranks? Skipping school? Gotta get yelled at by the old man to stay straight? Well?” He demanded, a finger pointed threateningly at the boy, “what have you got to say to yourself?”

The boy stared up at the large one, eyes wide and horrified, before curling as far into the chair as he could, hiding his face in his knees. The masked minders around them shifted again, one of them saying something low and disapproving that the boy didn’t catch.

“Hey.” The voice came again, kinder this time. “Hey, come on now.” A face was peaking at his own from the small space created between his arms, brows furrowed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

The boy slowly pulled his head free, sniffling. He stared up at the large boy, lip wobbling.

The large boy seemed to deflate, the righteous anger that had been there moments away disappearing completely. Instead, the large boy looked awkward and unsure. Then his nodded to himself, expression firm. “I have an idea, come on!” He shot off, the boy staring after him in confusion. The large boy stopped only a few feet away, once he realized the boy wasn’t following him. He blinked in surprise, before making his way back over. “I won’t hurt you, you know. You can come if you want, you don’t have to be afraid.”

The boy turned to peer up at the masked man standing by his side. The large boy followed his gaze, confusion clearing from his expression.

 _“Oh,_ them. Don’t worry about them,” then turning to the masked guards, hands on his hips, the boy imperviously announced they were going onto the roof. The masked watchers exchanged a look.

“Young sir–”

But the large boy was already darting forward, pulling the boy up by his hand. “Nope, you have to do what I say! Bye!”

And then he was running off, dragging the boy behind him. They went up a flight of stairs, the boy glancing behind and watching as their masked watchers followed a few steps behind. Why were they running if they were still following? He didn’t understand. There was a door at the top of the stairs that the large boy flung open, letting go of the boy’s hand and spreading his wide. The boy remained at the top of the stairs, a hand raised to block the bright sunlight. He blinked hard, eyes widening as he took in the large boy and the way he seemed to glow in the sunlight. Tentatively, he took a step out. When nothing happened, he took another. He paused at the edge of a narrow railing, staring open mouthed at the expansive village that surrounded them. And just beyond that, a wide and yawning mountain with impressive faces carved upon it. A large wall surrounded the village and just beyond that – green.

So much green.

A giant forest that blanketed the ground, dyeing the color a verdant that the boy had never seen before. He gasped, hands grasping the railing tightly. “Wow.” He muttered quietly, unable to look away. He felt like he could feel the forest somehow, like a glowing warmth in his tummy.

The large boy let out a loud laugh. “He speaks!” He gave the boy a hard smack on the back. “It is pretty, isn’t it?”

The boy just nodded in agreement. He glanced shyly at the large boy, then to the masked guards waiting by the door to the stairs. “Why,” he said quietly, his voice barely heard above the sounds of the village around them, “do they listen to you?”

“Huh?” The large boy blinked at him, both hands resting atop his head, lankly elbows jutting out. “Oh! My dad’s their boss. They have to listen to me or I’m gonna get’um fired.”

The boy nodded slowly. That made sense, he guessed. He looked back over the village, eyes zeroing on the forest once more. “Young sir?”

The large boy suddenly burst into laughter. “Oh man, you don’t have to call me that. Only they do,” he said, jerking a thumb in the direction of the watchers, “you can call me Asuma.”

“Asuma.” The boy said slowly, testing the word out. The large boy sent him a sunny smile.

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out! Anyway, this my favorite place to come in the whole village. I like to come here when dad forgets about me. So,” the boy made a face, “you know. I come here a lot.” One of the masked guards shifted uncomfortably behind them. “Anyway! You looked so sad I thought you might like to see it too.”

“Ah,” the boy said, nodding. It was a kind thing to do. Maybe the kindest thing anyone had ever done for the boy. He wasn't used to that, he didn't know what to say or how to respond. He stood quietly instead, just taking the view.

One of the masked watchers was suddenly behind the boy, his hand a light weight on his shoulder. “Come now,” the watcher said, voice oddly…soft? “It’s time to go back in.”

The boy nodded obediently, far too used to taking orders than most his age, and turned to follow. He paused, glancing at the large boy who was watching them with a frown. “…thank you Asuma. It was very…pretty.”

Over the following days, the boy always kept an eye out for Asuma, hoping that the large boy may come and talk to him again, or take him to the roof to see the pretty forest. But he didn’t come and by the night of the third day, masked watchers came to collect him from his room. He had no reason to distrust them, he’d been following the masked watchers around like a lost duckling since he had left the labs, and so when they said to follow, he did.

He would learn – years later – that this was ROOT and that everyone thought him dead, his frail body finally having caved under the exhaustion of the experiments, dying just like his brethren in the other tubes had. A body double had been left, identical to the boy in every way, and so no one thought to question it. And Asuma did come back to try and find him on the fourth day, when he didn’t have school, but by then the boy was long gone.

And he had a name.

Kinoe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, hope you liked our first picture of baby!Tenzō and Asuma. So, our boy was taken straight to ROOT in the series. I took some artistic liberties here, but whatev.


	2. Kinoe, Part 1

Life under Lord Danzō was very different from life in the tube, or that short time period when had been in the Room. Lord Danzō was an exacting teacher, with very little patience for failure and a drive to cultivate his students to perfection. Kinoe strove every day to meet the expectations that were met for him. Though it was hard, especially at first, it was – in its own, odd way – a relief that someone expected anything from him at all.

He was unused to anything different from the tube or the Room. In the tube he only floated, absorbing whatever education was fed to him through the audio system in the tube. His world consisted of warm, muggy water and a horrified awareness as he watched the tubes around him start to fall empty, one by one. Just that green tinted water, the dark of the lab that held him, and the waning faces of the other children (and the girl – the girl who had always been there until she wasn’t – the girl who could have been his sister – the girl who had died in front of his eyes).

The Room had been the same and wildly different in the same way. He was no longer isolated in his tube, but he had never been allowed to leave it without one of the masked watchers (ANBU, he knew now) with him. And he’d never gone anywhere but to another medical room, or a testing room, or the Hokage’s office, and that one rare time, that wide open roof with its bright sun and that pretty forest in the distance.

He got to travel frequently now, though Kinoe was no less watched then he was before. But he was allowed to go out into the forest at night, press his palms up to those green, green trees and feel how that strange warmth in his stomach seemed to draw up through his body and down his hand to meet the equally strange warmth arching to meet him from the tree.

In many ways, his time under Lord Danzō was easier than the Room. He knew exactly what was expected of him, his day planned down to the very minute. The routine was easy (meeting the goals set for him not so much) but Kinoe was content with the knowledge that he knew what he was supposed to be doing. If he knew and did his best to do it right, then there would be no repercussions. In the Room, Kinoe never knew what he was supposed to be doing and was always afraid punishment was right around the corner, hovering like a hawk with watching a mouse, just waiting for him to make a mistake in his ignorance.

After a few years, once Kinoe had finally earned Lord Danzō’s trust, he’d been allowed to go out on missions. It was both thrilling and terrifying at the same time. The chance to see Fire country as a whole was amazing, but the knowledge of what would come should he fail made whatever pleasure he felt wavier.

But mainly, life in ROOT is easy. Lord Danzō was an easy man, he expected much but was clear on what that is. He’s a gifted orator, even if Kinoe’s knees grow weary from how long he kneels on them, listening to his Lord wax on and off about the political situation in Leaf, always working himself into a fervor before he ended.

And then, one day, a boy in a dog mask came.

He couldn’t have been much older than Kinoe, but the difference between them seemed endless and vast, like an ocean. When the time came to strike down the Third Hokage, Kinoe followed his ordered faithfully. The dog masked boy defeated him with an ease that startled Kinoe; he had been the strongest in ROOT for years. An unfair advantage he may have in his wood release, but it was _his_ and no one ever claimed a ninja’s way was even remotely fair.

When he’d been laid down on his flat on his back and sure death was only a strike away, Kinoe had experienced a new emotion; he had been stunned. It so different from his usual bland emotions that Kinoe almost couldn’t breathe under the strength of it.

The feeling only grows when the dog masked boy did something unexpected.

He let Kinoe go.

For a moment – a brief moment – Kinoe had been confused, uncertain. But then the dog masked boy told him his wood release was too valuable to be lost to the village and everything makes sense again. Of course it was, Kinoe knew how valuable he was. The only baby out of sixty to survive, with the First Hokage’s genetics woven into his very being, he’d be a feather in anyone’s cap. And as an Omega breeder, any children he bared had a strong chance of inheriting his acquired blood line. The slant from confusion to understandable gives him the strength to flee.

* * *

There wasn’t a limit on where Kinoe could go as long as he careful to remain unseen. He used to keep to the forests or the alleyways surrounding the Foundation, but in the days following the fight with the dog masked boy, Kinoe found himself going deeper into the city.

There was little real danger; even if he was observed, most ninja would see the grey and black of his ROOT uniform, his painted mask, and leave him be. In a ninja village, it’s the greatest camouflage he could ever have. It took him less then a day to find the dog masked boy – no, _Hatake Kakashi._ For a reason he doesn’t quite understand, Kinoe found himself dogging the boy’s footsteps, observing from a distance for hours. And then Kinoe just sort of…kept going back.

He was not sure what it was that drew him to follow Hatake around, he’s not a terribly interesting individual after all. In fact, his days were fairly uneventful. Hatake got up, he reported in to the ANBU headquarters (of which Kinoe was not stupid enough to try and infiltrate, no matter how his obsession had grown) or the training fields, ate dinner at one of three restaurants, and usually went home. Sometimes a boy with a bowl cut and an odd uniform bothered him, most of the time no one spoke to him at all.

Hatake had nightmares.

Kinoe was not sure why that sticks with him, but it does. Perhaps, he mused one day, hidden behind a store sign as he watched Hatake chose a fruit drink from a vending machine, he was obsessed because he had been so thoroughly beaten. It was certainly a first for Kinoe. He had not been defeated like that since those first year of training under Lord Danzō.

It’s on once such day of stalking that Kinoe saw the Tall Boy again, Asuma. He’s even taller now, his hair longer. He’s a ninja now, though without seeing his papers Kinoe can’t tell if he’s a Genin or Chūnin. He moved like a Genin, but with the former war that means very little with the liberal battlefield promotions that had taken place. Without conscious thought, Kinoe’s attention slipped from Hatake’s shuffling form to Asuma.

As he watched, Asuma stretched, hands reaching tall above him before resting on his head. He continued walking and without thought, Kinoe moved to follow.

“Asuma!” A voice called, bright and happy, and Kinoe can’t quite help the studder of his heart when Asuma’s face broke into a bright smile. A dark-haired girl was sprinting across the way towards him, grabbing his arm and leaning heavily on it.

“Mah, Kurenai-chan. What’s up? Does sensei need us?”

The girl shook her head before grinning up at him, a little blush to her cheeks. “Want to grab some lunch with me?”

Asuma shrugged. “Sure, why not.”

Kinoe watched them until they turned a corner, heart in his throat. He pulled away when they disappeared into a corner restaurant, pressing against the building behind him. So. Asuma had survived the war. That was good. Kinoe closed his eyes, palm pressed flat against his chest, his heart beating like a frightened bird underneath it.

That was good.

Asuma was…that was good.

* * *

The tree that Lord Danzō sent him to in the forest was astonishing. For a moment, Kinoe could do no more than simply stand in front of it, feeling its presence. She’s a very old tree, so old that she was an elder during the village’s founding. A part of him almost wanted to disobey and remain outside, to seep in its strength, but Kinoe had a mission and so he moved forward, feet steady. He must find Orochimaru, it is Lord Danzō’s will and his will, as always, was done.

Inside, a man formed of mist appears before him. And then, within a breath, dozens more do. Kinoe wondered if he should be concerned, but he felt nothing than surprise at the sight of it. The mists consolidating into even people, and then Kinoe could feel nothing but righteous awe at Lord Danzō’s prowess, the missive from him granting him the immediate confidence of these mysterious people.

And then a little girl forms, just a little taller than Kinoe, and she greeted him with such open joy on her face that Kinoe almost can’t breathe from it. No one, _ever,_ has been happy to see him. She cried out a name, _“Tenzō!”_ and it echoed in his chest like a strange benediction. _Tenzō,_ he thinks, _Tenzō._

He likes it.

* * *

The girl, Yukimi, has the same hair as him.

It’s a stupid thing to focus on; the possibility that Kinoe is her brother Tenzō is slim to none, and the stern male who follows the little girl around is firm in his belief that Kinoe was not. But…her hair…

Kinoe mind shifted briefly to all those other children, the ones in the other tubes, and wonders with a stab of (sadness? Sadness) which one had been Tenzō. He wondered if Tenzō has a tree planted for him in this strange clan’s graveyard, if anyone even realized that they needed one. Their trust in Orochimaru was complete, as sure and total as the curse marks on their necks that kept their bloodline from killing their clan.

Yukimi’s reaction to the planted trees, the young ones, new yet so sturdy, trees that could not have have been more than ten years old was striking. Kinoe winced when he felt each one be pulled up, then shudders as one is snapped in half. The distress of the saplings echoed weirdly in his chest, like a toothache. He was careful as he replanted them, digging deep in the soil, trying not to think of those empty tubes, seeping just enough of his own chakra into the soil to ensure it will take.

They may still survive, though nothing could be done for the broken one, and Kinoe doubted he’d be able to check on them in the future. Still, he sent a strong pulse of his chakra and hoped that they would survive, as something of those children deserved to. Yukimi took him down a winding maze of wooden tunnels, leading him to what she calls her and Tenzō’s ‘secret base.’ Yukimi spoke with a paradoxical cheerfulness about how her clan could never go outside, how the wind may just blow them away, and how she and Tenzō used to sit there and listen to the outside world through a silver in the wood, just hoping for the chance to experience it.. 

Kinoe feels…odd, as he sat next to this strangely kind girl. Odd and a strange, queer kinship. How easily he can imagine what Yukimi spoke of, it reminded him so much of those early years in the tube, when Kinoe had wished desperately for anything to see, anything to _do._ They sit quietly together, shoulders touching, and Kinoe let himself think.

What if…

* * *

Yukimi has what Lord Danzō would often call ‘a break from reality.’ It happened to a few of the recruits that Lord Danzō took on, the ones that couldn’t quite cut it in ROOT. She took over control of his body, wielding it like a puppet, sending them both flying and leaping about, jumping and – and _playing_ , like children!

Kinoe would be more horrified if a part of him didn’t feel so bad for her. She was so happy to be outside that he can almost forgive her, but then they she took them to a carnival. A carnival! And Kinoe without his mask! In front of all those people, _without his mask._ Lord Danzō would be so angry if he ever learned of it. But Yukimi seemed utterly happy, her cheeks flushed with excitement, her eyes bright with joy. It…gave him pause, stilling whatever upset he may have voiced.

This was…this was against the code, the rules but…but it was fun.

Kind of.

In a strange way.

Yukimi took Kinoe’s hand in her own, swinging it happily. Kinoe stared at it, brows furrowed, and wondered why on earth she was doing it. It didn’t seem to actually _do_ anything, other than make their palms sweaty. The image from the week before, of that girl – Kurenai – holding Asuma’s hand flashed through Kinoe’s mind. He stared harder at their closed hands, tilting his own to clasp her back.

It wasn’t…so bad.

He has no idea why he does it, but he ends up telling Yukimi about the tests, the tubes – and the girl. She was blond, he remembers, and her hair in the lab lights looked like spun, neon gold. She lived in the tube right next to Kinoe and she had been there for as long as he could remember. They could never speak to each other, but he remembers –

\- _a hand pressed up against the glass, barely wider than his own, a smile, warm for all that it was small –_

And then Hatake came for Yukimi and Kinoe found himself having one of Lord Danzō’s own ‘breaks from reality.’

* * *

When it is all said and done, when Kinoe is returned to ROOT, he does something he had never done before. He lies to Lord Danzō. Kinoe is convinced the other will know, he’d already accepted his death would come from this. But it was worth it; Yukimi is safe and alive and living her life. And she’s not the girl, she’s not – Kinoe knows she’s not – but it’s enough. It’s enough. And Hatake – Kakashi – was a friend (?) now. Kinoe had never had a friend before. And he’d stopped by town to see Asuma one more time, watching with hungry eyes as he bickered with his older sister and hung the wash up on a line in the Hokage’s personal home.

Yes, Kinoe was sure death was waiting for him at the end of his lie. Lord Danzō is powerful, he is all knowing, he is Kinoe's Lord and Master, he is the authority under which the sun chooses to rise over their precious village, he - believes him. There are no words to explain the mix of terror, exhilaration, and startled disbelief Kinoe feels when he walks away from his debriefing, very much alive. He had _lied_ and Lord Danzō _hadn't known._ For the first time since his entry into ROOT, a seed of doubt grows in Kinoe's chest.


End file.
